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NIGHT OWL: Waratah resident Kelly-Rae Shirlaw has enjoyed spending time in cemeteries at night since she was a teen. Picture Marina Neil SHE doesn’t worship Satan and doesn’t consider herself a goth, but Waratah resident Kelly-Rae Shirlaw has been hanging out in cemeteries at night since she was a teen.

And it seems she is not the only Hunter resident with the somewhat morbid interest.

Police received a fright while looking for a robber in Sandgate cemetery on Saturday morning – a mobile phone started to ring from among the gravestones.

A man who had earlier stormed a brothel and threatened an employee was last seen headed for the cemetery about 1am. Instead of the offender, the officers found four teenagers in gothic attire who popped up from behind a headstone.

Sandgate cemetery’s manager Chris Pryke – who was not aware of last weekend’s incident – said “paranormals” had been known to hang out at the cemetery after hours.

“They’re not supposed to be there after 7pm; we had some problems with paranormals in the cemetery here running over the graves 12 months ago,” he said.

“We came across photos of them doing it on Facebook and had a talk to them and told them not to.”

For Ms Shirlaw the appeal in cemeteries at night lies in how “peaceful” they can be.

“I’m definitely not one of those gothic stereotypes,” she said. “But I would say my reasons for visiting cemeteries at night would be similar.

“Most people who hang out in cemeteries would tell you it is so peaceful while you walk up and down the aisles.

“I wander around and also sit; it’s the quietness and the beauty of it that has always attracted me.

“Most people consider graveyards to be creepy but I don’t see anything creepy about them.

“A lot of people go to the beach to look at the water or go to the bush to do bushwalking, but what better place to come than the cemetery where you know no one is going to be?

“I’m not obsessed with the dead – I go here to understand my own mortality.

“This is where we end up.”

Ms Shirlaw, 33, estimated she had visited just about every cemetery in the Lower Hunter over the years.

“Sandgate cemetery opened in 1881, exactly 100 years before my birth day,” she said.

“Gravesites are where the people who went before us are. Even if their lives were insignificant, they still played their part.

“Apparently I had a cousin who was buried here, but he’s in an unmarked grave.”

About 90,000 people have been buried at Sandgate, which is the state’s third-largest cemetery.

It is estimated there are more than 4000 infant burials for which no marked grave or memorial exists, something acknowledged through a special monument built in 1999.

In September last year the cemetery started a database project aimed at learning about the stories behind the hundreds of unmarked graves that belong to the Hunter’s war contingent.

Ms Shirlaw, a university student, said that in recent years she had been forced to seek permission to attend Sandgate cemetery at night because other people had caused trouble there after hours.

“If you come here you should be respectful and understand this environment is not yours,” she said. “These are the people who helped build our city. You can’t trash that. It’s historical.”

Mr Pryke warned that anyone who went into the cemetery at night without permission was trespassing.

“People need to understand it’s a cemetery not a play park or camping reserve,” he said. “Actually with those teenagers [who police stumbled across], if it was night-time, they would have been trespassing. If people do not have permission I find that disrespectful.”

Mr Pryke said that security guards patrolled the cemetery at night and there were signs letting people know not to enter after 7pm.

Beijing: China’s Communist Party has endorsed a raft of legal changes aimed at injecting the country’s legal system with greater independence and professionalism, while keeping courts firmly under the control of the party.

A communique on the proposed reforms was released on Thursday night after a four-day closed-door meeting of the ruling party’s elite to discuss “the socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics”. But it provided limited specifics on how the country’s legal system – which does not have an independent judiciary and is frequently dogged by allegations of corruption and lack of transparency – would be improved.

The language of the carefully-worded document, however, made numerous references to a more impartial and accountable system with greater supervision and punishment for officials who were found to be interfering in court cases.

The emphasis on fairness reflects the Chinese leadership’s anxiety over widespread dissatisfaction related to the judiciary’s handling of land grabs, corruption and pollution, and the increasing threat such dissatisfaction poses to social stability.

The moves are also seen as important to the workings of China’s market economy, with slowing growth raising the prospect of more commercial disputes.

“China has been pushing for deeper judicial reforms to address public concerns over [the] capability and fairness of Chinese courts, which are receiving more cases than ever,” official news agency Xinhua reported.

But critics said the government’s motives in using legal reforms to help temper unrest were self-interested, and would neither curtail the power of the party nor see it adopt a more tolerant stance toward challenges to its authority.

“The reform is to strengthen [the] party’s leadership,” prominent lawyer Si Weijiang told Fairfax Media. “To ensure a better judiciary, is to use a better knife for handling different oppositions.

“It says local authority should interfere less in the judiciary, but how? The financial and personnel power is in their hands.”

Cheng Li, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said while there was no “landmark change”, the mention of rule of law and China’s constitution in itself was “encouraging”, and would be viewed positively by the broader public, if not within legal and liberal intellectual circles.

And while the party elite’s meeting, known in China as the “fourth plenum”, had taken place against the backdrop of a sweeping anti-corruption campaign, some were surprised by the lack of mention of a closely-watched investigation into party elder Zhou Yongkang.

While confirmation of his case being handed to prosecuting authorities could well come soon, close observers are increasingly anxious about the potential for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign to slow down amid greater internal opposition and distraction over the political crisis in Hong Kong.

The plenum ratified decisions to expel several party officials linked to Mr Zhou, including the former head of the state asset regulator Jiang Jiemin, former vice-minister of public security Li Dongsheng, and petroleum executive Wang Yongchun. Other senior officials including Li Chuncheng, Wan Qingliang and Yang Jinshan were also expelled.

Peter Strickland isn’t exactly sure how he came to direct Bjork’s concert film, Bjork: Biophilia Live, the movie element of a long-term endeavour that has incorporated a studio album, a multimedia project, an app, educational workshops and a world tour, constructed around the artist’s singular vision of the relationships between music, nature and technology.

Someone suggested his name to her, it seems. “I didn’t need an introduction to her work,” he says, “but she needed an introduction to mine”. After she’d seen his films, which include the features Katalin Varga and Berberian Sound Studio, the collaboration was under way and Strickland joins the list of filmmakers Bjork has worked with, a list that includes Spike Jonze, Lars von Trier and Harmony Korine.

Bjork: Biophilia Live captures a concert at London’s Alexandra Palace that took place last year at the end of a long tour. It’s a wildly inventive show that features Bjork, the songs from Biophilia and, among other things, an Icelandic female choir, a percussionist, an electronic instrumentalist, a Tesla coil, a solar-powered music box and the voice of David Attenborough. It draws on some of the scientific and poetic imagery that has already been part of her vision. And it’s performed in the round.

For Strickland, who doesn’t regard himself as a fan of the genre, concert films fall into two categories. “They are seen either as souvenirs and merchandise, or a director trying to put their stamp on it”. His own preference is for the straightforward account of the performance itself, and the focus for him is not on the filmmaker but on the music. “Even if Bela Tarr did a concert film with Sting, I’m not going to watch it.” Working with Bjork, it was important to serve her vision, he says. although, he adds, “I would do the same for any other musician.”

First of all, there were the logistics of filming in the round. “I’d only worked with one camera in the past, and suddenly here you were with 16 cameras and no retakes allowed.” He saw the show live twice, with the director of photography, Australian filmmaker Brett Turnbull, a concert film veteran, who prepared elevation plans for the shoot that Strickland speaks of with wonder “and there was an amazing camera crew, they’ve done this for years and years, and they came in looking like something out of The Expendables,” he recalls.

After the recording of the performance, the next stage was researching and choosing the imagery that would accompany it. Some strong, visually striking material was already part of the Biophilia project and the concert experience, but there was plenty more available to the filmmakers, Strickland and his co-director, Nick Fenton.

They had freedom to select from sources such as Getty, the BBC and the Wellcome Trust, and to bring their own ideas: Strickland, for example, is a great admirer of the work of the late Jean Painleve, and for the song Crystalline, his estate allowed the filmmakers to use some of his footage. “It was really exciting for me to have it. He was a scientist who made quite long scientific films and then did re-edits of the same films with avant garde music, quite lyrical and poetic, and on the borderline between art and science.”

Bjork, he says, was receptive to their ideas and email conversations helped to clarify things. “She felt comfortable with us and we understood what she wanted and what she didn’t want, and then we were very much left to it in the edit.”

One of the things she wanted to avoid, he says, “was anything with a retro feel, anything that was too grainy. She wanted footage that was modern and quite clinical, and she didn’t want a didactic approach.” Her focus was more on “celebrating and marvelling at nature” and expressing the hope that nature and technology can collaborate. With this in mind they sought, for example, images that “looked virtually identical but were in fact complete opposites”, such as an overhead shot of sand dunes juxtaposed with microscopic shots of tissue cells”.

The concert also included songs that were not part of the Biophilia album, “that were not explicitly evoking that kind of texture, we were thinking, how do we interpret these, what scope do we have, can we be a bit more intuitive”. For Hidden Places, for example, from Vespertine, “Nick found this amazing footage of a camera underneath a glacier, which completely got the title of the song. And when you placed it on top of the image, it made Bjork look really minuscule, like something out of Journey to the Centre of the Earth or Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.”

His fellow director, Nick Fenton came at the task from a slightly different position. Fenton is an editor and that was originally going to be his role on the film. It took a slightly different turn, however, when another of Strickland’s projects, a feature, went into production sooner than expected.

As Bjork: Biophilia Live came together in the edit, Strickland was in Hungary; Bjork was in New York, available through Skype; and Fenton was in London. There was a regular to-and-fro of contact, Fenton says: “it was a truly modern, digital experience and hopefully it hasn’t lost its humanity.”

Fenton has not only worked on concert films before, he’s also done music films by artists from Iceland. He edited two Sigur Ros film, including Heima, a non-traditional tour documentary which followed the band around as they planned free, spontaneous, unannounced concerts in their home country. He did an Arctic Monkeys concert video for Richard Ayoade in 2008; he’s edited Ayoade’s subsequent features, Submarine and The Double. And he also edited the movie version of the All Tomorrow’s Parties concert compilation.

As a longtime Bjork fan, he was thrilled to be able to be part of Biophilia Live. Watching the footage of her on stage, he says, “I kept being amazed and awestruck by her performance and the depth of emotion she puts into these songs.” Finding the imagery to sit with this, he says, was always going to be a challenge – “sourcing shots that were beautiful enough to earn their place but also scientifically accurate”.

He and Strickland had slightly different, yet complementary approaches to the task, he says. “Peter is very comfortable with the idea of serving Bjork’s vision, of seeing the film as a souvenir, a memento for fans, but I aspired for it to be something extra, and the whole opening sequence came from that, to start out somewhere else and end up in the concert hall.”

Ring is an abstract bent circle made of scrap metal sheets cast into bronze. The artist said it is “evocative of things in nature and industry”.

Even Sydney Morning Herald readers voiced their dissent for the winning sculpture, with many relating the work to one thing in particular.

“It looks a bit like a very old dry treasure my dog has left behind in the backyard,” one reader said.

While another noted, “the artist is 100 per cent right – it is ‘evocative of things in nature’ all right, as anyone who has a dog would know.”

Though it may not be widely understood, many in the arts community were singing its praises.

“Well-deserving, it’s ambitious and it’s a challenging work in a number of ways,” said Michael Le Grand, who won the same prize in 1997 with his work Deshabille. “I think the judges have made an honourable choice.”

At Tamarama beach, where Ring is currently placed, it is clear that Andrew Hankin’s 24-metre frying pan is a fun favourite among visitors.

But Chris Fox, Lecturer in Art and Architecture at the University of Sydney, said he could see why Ring and not the pan was chosen by the judges.

“I think it’s refreshing that it’s not of the formalist, obvious designs. The statement behind this [Ring] is not a one-liner, as [are] a lot in the exhibition.”

He says the fact that the everyday visitor does not instantly understand the work is not necessarily a bad thing.

“I do think it would be good if it engaged more with the site, tested the scale of the beach,” he said, adding that he felt sculptures in the current exhibition are less politically or socially-focused than they once were.

Sculptor Nigel Harrison, who won first prize in 2001 with his piece Omeomi, says he can see a clear pattern in the kinds of Sculpture by the Sea winners over the past few years.

“The judges are really trying to get the audience to view a certain genre of work,” Harrison said. “Every year there is a focus on a form of sculpture that wouldn’t necessarily be considered the best work there, but is deemed to be a work very respectful of the genre they work in, I think that’s really worthwhile.”

“In the last decade there has been quite a push of public programs to raise critical awareness of the consumeristic aspects of our society; recycling, sustainability and I think it [Ring] ticks all those boxes.”

As the former coach of Kim Clijsters and Sabine Lisicki, and the current adviser to world No.4 and recent Serena-slayer Simona Halep, Wim Fissette has been known to quiz his players after matches about certain vital statistics. He might ask, for example where his charge thought she directed her serves to the deuce court? Down the T, or out wide?

“They’re, ‘Yeah, I went like 50-50’, and then I showed them it was 80-20,” says Fissette, who originally logged the statistics with a pen and paper. Used to. And if it is clear that perception does not always equal reality when it comes to tennis patterns and performance, then it is also true that a sport which had long lagged behind the scientific leaders in the provision and analysis of data is now catching up.

Fissette, for example, has exchanged his manual tools for a tablet device delivering comprehensive statistics and on-court tracking information via an app developed by the WTA’s software analytics partner SAP. “It’s easier and much more accurate this way,” says the Belgian, who, like his WTA colleagues, will next year be able to utilise the tablet during sanctioned on-court coaching breaks.

World No.7 Ana Ivanovic suspects that seeing may lead to believing. “It’s one thing when you’re playing and you have certain feelings and things that you think you’re doing right or wrong,” she says. “But then when you have the fact that actually it’s maybe different than what you feel, it’s sometimes very encouraging.”

Or not. Still, now that the data is available, WTA chief executive Stacey Allaster stresses that it is a matter of personal choice whether to use it, while likening the development to electronic line-calling technology in that if “the athlete’s emotional about something, this will be able to calm her down”.

For while WTA players and coaches currently receive post-match point-by-point analysis from SAP, this takes the application a step further; instead of a tool to use in preparation and review, there will be real-time access – with a 15-second delay, to accommodate potential Hawkeye challenges – during matches.

An example: Fissette recalls a time during his successful three slam-winning collaboration with Clijsters, the pair was preparing for a clash with Victoria Azarenka. “Every break point Azarenka was serving wide, and I told Kim that actually before the match,” he says. “But if it happens during the match and I can show the statistics, she will believe it more.

“So what will happen in the future is that you will have to play with more variation, because everybody will know [how you play]. It will raise the game of women’s tennis, for sure. Everybody sees what you are doing, so you will have to be more complete and become a better player.”

Tennis has not been renowned for its cutting-edge use of data and statistics (although Tennis Australia’s acclaimed video analysis program deserves honourable mention), much as the AFL was once measured in basic kicks, marks, and handballs but has now become far more sophisticated.

The 2014 season has been the first in the WTA’s five-year deal with SAP, a German company that also works with golf, formula one, cricket, baseball, basketball, soccer and others. Yet, while Ivanovic and Australian Sam Stosur are known as two athletes with an appetite for the software, the majority still rely on their coaches to filter and disseminate the data.

Experienced American coach Nick Saviano, now working with Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard, warns of the perils of living on stats alone, however much more advanced and useful the data has become. “The transformation has been exponential,” says Saviano. “The information at your fingertips now really helps you to quantify exactly what’s going on, but it’s very, very important that those statistics are augmented by the eyes of a coach, because statistics alone can be very deceiving.”

As to whether the on-court initiative, recently approved by the WTA board, will make a significant difference during matches, Saviano said: “I think it will be helpful but, like anything else, there is the science of coaching and there the art of coaching, and somebody has to use the combination of the two.”

Opinion on the desirability of on-court coaching itself – introduced as a broadcast tool in 2008 – remains somewhat divided, and it continues to be banned by the grand slams and the men’s tour, the ATP. Critics argue that tennis is a gladiatorial sport that should be decided between those competing, and that on-court coaching also disadvantages the admittedly dwindling few without the resources to employ full-time coaches. Or good ones, even.

As Nigel Sears said in a recent interview with London’s Daily Telegraph: “The only thing you could say in its favour is that it would level the playing field for those who can’t afford a decent coach. A weak coach might find it useful; a good one will be logging everything that happens anyway.”

To that end, SAP’s head of tennis technology, Jenni Lewis, says the four key delivery points for coaches have been serve direction, contact return point, rally strike point, and shot placement. But, having started relatively simply, match stats can now be tailored to make them situational.

So, we might know how many aces, but when, where, and in what situations were they served? What tends to happen on 0-30 points? 40-0? Deuce? When the first point is won, how often does the game follow? How does a player’s court positioning change on key points? Do they retreat or advance? And how has that changed since 2008?

As to why it has been so long in coming, Lewis says the technology of tracking is far more advanced now, so it is now more about how best to consume it. Fissette believes it lacked accuracy and clarity previously, while Allaster says tennis has been a traditional sport, and slow to embrace change.

“The information is there today,” she says. “A coach can watch a match on a broadcast and take the handwritten notes or can sit in the stands. But I think, you know, run simple. Run efficiently. Run faster. That’s what this is about.”

There is also a fan-based element, with summary information available at present, and decisions to be made about how much more will come. “How deep do we go?” says Lewis. “We all have to be mindful of gambling and things along those lines. So for us, it’s really focused on the athlete, giving them the detailed information.”

This week, amid the comfortable chairs and huddled groups in the player lounge at the WTA finals in Singapore, directly behind a quietly preparing Caroline Wozniacki was the desk that houses the statistical and analytical nerve centre, available to all. It seems there is a new player in tennis, and it’s not just the likes of Halep and Bouchard that are improving before our eyes.

Di Patston in a Wallabies team photo at Manly in June. Photo: FacebookWallabies players may have held a “truth session” to clear the air in the lead up to the third Bledisloe Cup match, but Friday’s disciplinary hearing into the Kurtley Beale affair is the one truth session that counts.

Beale allegedly sent two lewd messages containing pictures of obese women to teammates, accidentally copying in Wallabies business manager, Di Patston. One message was captioned simply “Di”, the other “Di – would you f——- go this?”

District Court judge Mark Williams SC, former Wallaby David Griffin and barrister Dominic Villa will decide whether the suspended playmaker infringed the ARU policy against harassment and bullying.

Beale’s legal team requested that Patston and former coach Ewen McKenzie be present to give evidence but neither will attend the Code of Conduct hearing.

After weeks of chaos, there are eight main questions to which rugby fans deserve answers.

1. Why did Beale send the messages?

Was it simply a smutty prank to get a few laughs from other players? Or was it motivated by resentment of Patston’s relationship with the team and their coach? Patston, who was officially employed as business manager, had reportedly expanded her influence over time to include decisions directly about the team.

If Beale attempts to qualify an apology by citing frustrations with management, it will raise further questions for the ARU.

2. Who are the other players Beale sent the messages to?

Beale originally told Patston he had sent the messages only to himself. But it is understood he mistakenly copied Patston in on a group text to other players via the program WhatsApp.

Wallabies players have publicly stood by Beale. Captain Michael Hooper has argued that the incident should not end the 25-year-old’s career. Israel Folau, who won the John Eales Medal for rugby player of the year, has also defended Beale.

Discovering how many Wallabies received but did not report the message will help to determine the complicity of the group. The failure of senior players to report Beale would bring their leadership under scrutiny.

3. Were more messages sent?

“If you did not accidentally send them to me how many more would there be?” Patston asked Beale.

The question is impossible to answer. But how many may have gone before? It is unclear whether the messages formed an isolated incident or a habit of Beale’s. Whether other players engaged in such private slagging of Patston is also unknown.

Following the leaking to the media of the text exchange between Beale and Patston, there has been some suggestion that not all texts were leaked. If that is the case will the ARU release the full exchange?

4. When did McKenzie find out about the messages?

McKenzie said he became aware of the messages this month in Buenos Aires amid the fallout from an mid-flight argument between Beale and Patston over his not wearing a sponsor shirt.

But Beale’s manager, Isaac Moses, said McKenzie spoke with Beale about the text messages in June. If McKenzie did wait months before reporting the messages to the ARU integrity unit, the omission would raise further questions about his off-field management.

5. Did McKenzie favour Patston at the expense of the team?

McKenzie missed a team dinner in the lead up to a Test against South Africa in Perth to drive Patston to the airport so she could fly home for a family emergency (she ended up staying). More importantly, he was said to have missed a training session in Argentina to drive Patston to the airport. The Wallabies went on to lose to the Pumas for the first time since 1997 giving the Pumas their first Rugby Championship victory.

6. Should the lewd texts have been revealed after the mid-flight argument?

In a text from Patston to Beale on the day of the messages, she told him: “I won’t be telling Ewen, or the ARU as you are entitled to one mistake and be a better person for it.”

The mid-flight argument was the trigger for Beale’s alleged previous indiscretion to be revealed to ARU management. Did the holding back of that information from the ARU create an unhealthy power relationship between Beale and Wallaby team management?

7. When did Bill Pulver become aware of the breakdown between players and management?

While the actions of the ARU boss fall outside Beale’s hearing, Pulver has come under fire for his handling of the incident and its consequences. He has been criticised for a slow reaction to what became an extended public relations nightmare for the ARU. Could Pulver have avoided the mess? And when did he first become aware of divisions between the coach, support staff and players?

8. Even if the disciplinary hearing does not end Beale’s career, is his position in the team tenable?

Beale is not a member of the Wallabies’ 33-man Spring Tour squad that leaves Australia on Friday. New coach Michael Cheika said he was doing everything he could to keep his Waratahs charge in rugby union, short of influencing the hearing.

But Beale is off-contract and frequently mentioned as a rugby league prospect. Plus, his off-field record with the Wallabies suggests if Beale is on his last chance, he could soon use it up. He has been found guilty of drink driving without a licence, accused of assaulting a nightclub bouncer, and suspended for breaking team alcohol bans. He was fined $40,000 last year following a fight with Melbourne Rebels teammates.

Was cleared of a hamstring strain earlier in the week and is the likely option to start ahead of Labinot Haliti, with Tomi Juric still considered an injury risk. Expect him to be given an hour to run his socks off and make an impact.

2. Thiago Neves (Al-Hilal)

Undoubtedly the best player from Al-Hilal, Thiago Neves is a wonderfully skilled attacking midfielder capable of unlocking any defence on his day. Various clubs have shelled out a total of $32 million in transfer fees for his services. Capped seven times by Brazil, he is among the most damaging players in Asia.

3. Nikolai Topor-Stanley (Western Sydney)

Was admonished by coach Tony Popovic for not being up to his usual standards in the Sydney derby, although he qualified that statement by saying Topor-Stanley was fatigued after returning from international duty. Excuses this time? None.

4. Nasser Al-Shamrani (Al-Hilal)

“The Earthquake” has been in stunning form in Asia this campaign, bagging 10 goals – only two behind Ghana’s World Cup star Asamoah Gyan. Should he live up to his nickname, the pint-sized forward will give the Wanderers’ defence plenty to worry about.

5. Vitor Saba (Western Sydney)

Simply has to deliver two of the best matches of his life. Al-Hilal boast some mercurial talent and the Wanderers need one of their attackers to strike fear into opposition hearts. Saba’s tricky feet make him capable but we still haven’t seen the best of him.

THE KEY MATCH-UP

Mateo Poljak (Western Sydney Wanderers) v Mihai Pintilii (Al-Hilal)

Out of all the players coach Laurentiu Reghecampf could have gone for – an enormous range considering the unlimited finances of Al-Hilal – he hunted Pintilii right away. That has got to say something about his qualities. He will sit in the middle of the park and dictate all that happens around him. With Iacopo La Rocca stalking Thiago Neves, Poljak needs to be on Pintilli’s case all night.

IN THE DUGOUT

Tony Popovic (Western Sydney Wanderers)

This is probably the biggest match of his club career, as player or coach. The Wanderers have pulled a swiftie by keeping this match at Parramatta Stadium and now they must capitalise before the return leg in the heat of Riyadh. However, Popovic has geared his team for this moment and they are determined to capitalise.

Laurentiu Reghecampf (Al-Hilal)

Considered one of the most promising managerial talents in eastern Europe, Reghecampf was snatched by Al-Hilal on a multimillion-dollar contract after resurrecting Romanian greats Steaua Bucuresti to their former heights. He only just turned 39 last month.

It is perhaps predictable that a coach would talk down a rival team ahead of a much-awaited derby. And more so, when the coach is bullish Kevin Muscat.

Melbourne Victory’s clash with Melbourne City at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday night will mark the first time Melbourne Heart-cum-City will play the derby in their new guise, a factor Muscat suggested put City under pressure.

“What I do know is that it’s the first derby where there is some expectation on them … this is their first derby or first season where they’re going to have to live with some expectation,” he said on Friday. “We’ve had to live with expectation for 10 years.”

When challenged on this point, given Melbourne Heart’s comparable history playing derbys, Muscat hinted his opponent’s recent rebranding could serve as a weakness on the field.

“No disrespect intended, but so much has changed from there, so it’s like a fresh start, if you like,” he said.

And then he backpedalled: “It’s all irrelevant anyway. It’s a game of football. The relevance for our fans to win this game is huge and we’re fully aware of that.”

Muscat indicated Scott Galloway would replace Jason Geria, who hurt his ankle in the 1-1 draw against Adelaide United last week.

And Muscat is confident a higher-quality ground surface at Etihad will serve his side well.

“I dare say it will be a lot easier to play on this surface than it was last week,” he said.

“Our mantra won’t change. We’ll get them nice and early. Put them under enormous pressure. They’ll feel the pressure from the kick-off. And when we get the ball back … we’ll want to cause problems and want to get on the attack.”

The Victory coach’s selling of his own side is not mere lip service.

His team has not benefited from the open purse of Manchester City – perks including precious recruit, Spanish World Cup winner David Villa.

Yet Victory is ahead of its rival, boasting a 4-1 win over Western Sydney Wanderers FC, while City is resting on two draws – both scored by Villa, who will leave the club after round four.

The Victory’s chairman Anthony Di Pietro announced a club record membership total of 22,611, exceeding the previous mark of 22,600, on Friday.

And above all the tough talking and touting, Muscat had one clear directive for the swelling fan base: “I want to see those seats full.”

Sally Pearson never got the chance to have her say to her team. She never got to deliver the speech she wanted to before the Commonwealth Games for circumstances in Britain collided to prevent that.

Those circumstances were part of an escalation of events before and during the Games, which are now the subject of two reviews into her sport: one by Athletics Australia, which is understood to be completed and could be released next week, and another by the Australian Sports Commission.

Pearson did not get to talk to the Australian team before Glasgow because she did not attend the pre-Games camp as she chased races in a bid to get her body right to defend her hurdles title.

That she did not attend the camp and was subsequently financially penalised was one of the issues that percolated to become the scandal that eventually saw the team’s head coach Eric Hollingsworth sent home from Glasgow and lose his job.

“Circumstances leading into the Glasgow Commonwealth Games prevented me from addressing the team as a group and I would like to do that now,” she said as she asked to speak directly to the athletes in the room at the Australian Athlete of the Year awards ceremony on Thursday night.

“Firstly, let me say how proud I was to be appointed your captain for the Games, and more importantly how proud we all were of your performances. It is very rare that both personal and team preparation for a major meet goes exactly to plan and that was certainly the case for me and this team on this occasion. However, perform the team did, and we should be proud of that great achievement.”

Pearson’s speech provided not only a moment of congratulation but a chance to cast ahead to the Olympic Games that sit tantalisingly on the horizon – Rio in 2016.

“The Comm Games are now behind us and while we have several inquiries being conducted that will go a long way to ensuring mistakes of the Comm Games are addressed, it is all targeted at making our team better as we move forward. There will be changes but the one thing which will remain is our love of the sport and our love of the challenge,” she said.

“While there are people looking backwards to make improvements, it is our role as athletes to look forward … to both the world championships in Beijing [in 2015] and the Olympic Games in Rio. We face the challenge of preparing ourselves to the best of our ability. Let’s surround ourselves in positivity, take no short cuts and leave no stone unturned in search of shaved seconds or hundredths of seconds, metres or fractions of metres.

“Do not set goals of just making the team, set goals of winning, dream not of the opening ceremony but of your podium moment.”

She added that the team needed to earn respect in a comment that hinted at a loss of respect after the events of Glasgow.

“The onus is on us to make sure we earn our country’s respect, not only for being the best individuals in green and gold, but also the best team,” she said.

Pearson said she had learnt from painful experience in the past two years as she battled hamstring troubles in the lead-up to the Moscow world championships in 2013 and this year’s Commonwealth Games that she was as vulnerable to injury as anyone.

“I thought I was bulletproof … I now know that I am not and I get injured just like any other athlete,” she said.

Pearson recently changed coach, splitting with Antony Drinkwater-Newman, with whom she had been with only briefly after splitting with long-term coach Sharon Hannan.

The change came in unusual circumstances after Drinkwater-Newman was sought for a high-paying overseas coaching position and told Pearson of his intent to pursue the rare opportunity.

Drinkwater-Newman only later discovered the job offer was a strange sort of hoax, but by that time Pearson had committed to working with her new coach Ashley Mahoney.